Monday, July 7, 2008

mnml ssgs mx06: mike parker

ok, sorry for the radio silence peeps. but what better way to make up for it than a new ssg mix. the latest installment is from mike parker. to be honest, we came across mike's work reasonably recently. we noticed a common theme in quite a few sets from donato dozzy and cio d'or - the best moments in these mixes were coming from records by mike parker. after a ssg reader noted that parker is a bomb dj, we decided he was definitely worth approaching for a mix. and luckily he agreed. the result is exactly what we hoped/expected: deep, dark and hypnotic. this mix is very reminiscent of steve bicknell's lost/cosmic soundscapes. unique and special music that very few are capable of producing and providing. so grab this mix and get lost...

i'm so grateful that this mix has come around (i was the anonymous tipster that once had my mind blown by parker in st. louis...i've been longing to hear another proper set from him for quite some time). you good folks at mnml ssgs never fail to impress. thank you.

daren - thanks for the advice. in regards to the podcast, basically we don't want anything that costs money because at this stage we dont want to introduce advertising onto the blog (which would need to do to pay for the podcast). and with the free ones, we don't want one that includes advertising. we thought jellycast would be enough - we didnt think we'd be going through 25gb of downloads each month! at this stage, it looks like the ssg mixes wont be happening as regularly as they have been over the last month or so, which means hopefully the current server should be ok after this month. we'll see. right now we don't have the time to really work it out.

anyway, enough explaining. i am glad people are enjoying the parker mix. i think part of what makes it special is precisely that there arent many people that sound like this...

Yeah... this is easily the best trance mix I've heard since Speedy J back in the day... what, you think I'm joking?

Apart from the fantastic atmosphere and restless intensity of this mix, one of the great things is the way it plays through a build. Same goes for recent Dozzy sets – and this is precisely what is missing from so much groove-based minimalist electronic music at the moment. It's fine to stay on the one for hours as Cassy or some of the Perlon DJs do, but I just wish people would build sets...

...is digital mixing a factor here?

There is nothing *technically* preventing people using serato/ableton/whatever from playing builds... but how come they almost never do?

There's such a reliance on 'garnish' too, ie FX mixing, loops, etc, that I feel a lot of people are focusing on the lie of the parsley and the size of the plate, and not the sausage.

Good on you for putting up a mix from Mike. Look forward to hearing it.

Mike used to make industrial/experimental stuff as part of P. Children in the late 1980s, which (apart from the fact that it's great) goes some way to explaining his use of Lustmord. There's a great mix he did for the Bleep43 podcast in December 2006 full of similar oddness.

Stoic Swine - was that February 2001, that party? Crazy warehouse? If so, I was there too. Played there in fact, just before Mike I think.